RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Betting on Business: How Family Wealth and Ethnic Capital Shape Choices and Constraints for Chinese Americans’ Entrepreneurial Pathways
JF RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences
FD Russell Sage Foundation
SP 192
OP 210
DO 10.7758/RSF.2026.12.3.09
VO 12
IS 3
A1 Vallejo, Jody Agius
A1 Keister, Lisa A.
YR 2026
UL http://www.rsfjournal.org/content/12/3/192.abstract
AB Entrepreneurship is a mobility mechanism for the immigrant generation, but second-generation Asian Americans are often assumed to shun business ownership in favor of entering the professional labor market. However, there is reason to believe that entrepreneurship is a common and important mobility pathway for the second generation. We explore this possibility by investigating second-generation Chinese Americans who bet on business. Using fieldwork and in-depth structured interviews conducted with second-generation Chinese American entrepreneurs, we ask: Why do highly educated Chinese Americans choose business over the professional labor force? How do family wealth, transnational connections, gender, ethnicity, and education shape their entrepreneurial pathways and experiences? We explore the choices and constraints that result in three ideal types of entrepreneurial experiences represented in our data: family business inheritors, family-funded entrepreneurs, and self-made business owners. Our examination of Chinese American business owners reveals a complex interplay between individual agency, intergenerational dynamics, structural advantages or disadvantages, and strategic adaptation. Ultimately, we find that second-generation Chinese Americans chart a range of business pathways and outcomes shaped by their class, ethnicity, and gender.